The first and most fundamental question about front projections is, “is it right for me?” It depends. Let’s run through the criteria we think is necessary to go forward with a front projector purchase.

Controlled lighting - Front projectors throw light onto a screen. The projected light is then reflected back to your eye.

The problem with this type of set up is that the screen itself isn’t choosey about what light it reflects back to your eye. If you have lights on in the room or light spilling in from windows, that light combines with the reflected light of the projector and washes out the image.

The question that logically follows is, “how much stray light is too much?” A normal home theater projector usually has a brightness rating somewhere in the range of 800-1500 lumens. Given a projector with that kind of light output, the rule of thumb would be that if a room has enough light to read in, it is probably too bright for a standard home theater front projector. You don’t need to have the room perfectly dark, although the darker the room, the better the image quality you will get out of your projector

If your room just can’t be configured to control ambient light, there are still a couple of options left if you are dead set on using a front projector. The options are as follows:

Buy a brighter home theater projector - To overcome some ambient light, you could buy a much brighter projector. The problem here is that compromises must be made. To gain brightness in a home theater projector, you will generally lose contrast and shadow detail. For most people, this is a fair compromise, but be warned that high lumen home theater projectors will also carry a hefty price tag, especially if you want to have a DLP projector.

Buy a brighter dual purpose projector - Another option to gain a brighter projector is to buy a business projector for your home theater. Business projectors tend to be geared towards brightness, and away from color accuracy and contrast. If you choose to go this route, you need to keep the following factors in mind:

1. Business machines are in a 4:3 aspect ratio. Most will show any widescreen image, but you lose vertical resolution.
   1. An SVGA (800 x 600) projector will give you an 800 x 450 resolution when using it in 16:9 mode. There will be black bars on top and bottom of the image.
   2. A XGA (1024 x 768) projector will give you a 1024 x 575 resolution when using it in 16:9 mode. There will be black bars on top and bottom of the image.
   3. An SXGA (1365 x 1024) projector will give you a 1365 x 766 resolution when using it in 16:9 mode. There will be black bars on top and bottom of the image.
2. The most notable difference between an LCD business projector and an LCD home theater projector will be the difference in resolution. Other differences can be in menu features that allow for fine tuning the image, although some LCD business projectors can rival home theater projectors in functionality.

3. The differences between a home theater DLP and a business DLP are vast in number. The light engine in a business DLP is set up for brightness and the sacrifice of color saturation and color accuracy. You’ll also notice the same resolution and functionality differences in DLP projectors as with the LCD projectors.

4. Brightness ratings for business projectors are calculated while viewing images from a computer. When showing video, the brightness produced will not be close to the stated lumen rating of the projector. There is no numerical calculation available to figure out the lumen output showing video because each technology is different, and each model will vary widely depending on how the manufacturer set up the projector at the factory. As a general rule, expect at least a 30% drop in brightness.

All this isn’t to say that business machines shouldn’t be used in a home theater setting, just that you have to be prepared to accept shortcomings in the brightness you are looking for. Consult a sales professional for the best business machines that can be used for home theater. They will be the best resources to steer you towards models that are set up specifically for dual-purpose multimedia.

Room Dimensions - Your room dimensions and layout are other major obstacles to buying a front projector. We will cover specifics of how to set up a room later, but will give you a starting point here.

Front projectors need room to throw a large image. If you want to have a true home theater experience, we suggest that you start with a moderately large room. The whole point of purchasing a front projector is to give a theater-like experience; this is lost if your room dimensions prevent you from projecting an image larger than six (6) feet wide without costly short throw lenses or complicated, costly rear projection set ups. We suggest keeping it simple.

Think about the room you want to place your projector in. Is there a place for at least a six (6) foot wide screen? Is there available space for proper placement of your surround sound speakers? Is the seating going to be too far away from the screen, thereby ruining the large screen experience, or are they going to be too close preventing viewers from seeing the entire screen without looking from side to side?

If you have a room too small or too crowded, we would suggest looking into the options of a flat panel display or a rear projection television.

For detailed instructions on how a room should be set up, please refer to our section “Setting Up a Room for Front Projection.”